Preview: Paly to host job fair in Small Gym
Students gather in front of the library to hear about summer opportunities at last year’s job fair. This year’s fair will be at Palo Alto High School on Sunday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Small Gym. According to the Early Childhood Development teacher Hilary McDaniel, the ultimate goal of the job fair is to drive students toward their dreams in their post-high school life by introducing summer employment opportunities to district students and families. “It’s a really it’s one of the few events right where all PAUSD families from kindergarten, all the way through 12th grade can really come together and combine their interests and needs,” McDaniel said. “It’s fun when you’re in the Small Gym, and everyone’s having conversations and finding out information, and they’re really excited about all the opportunities.” (Photo: Anna Feng)
March 4, 2023
With summer around the corner, students looking for job opportunities and pre-college programs can attend the Palo Alto Unified School District job fair tomorrow, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., in the Small Gym.
According to Early Childhood Development teacher Hilary McDaniel, the event was arranged by PAUSD and the Early Childhood Development program. The job fair will host a range of opportunities, including internships and summer opportunities.
Admission to the event is free and open to everyone. However, some opportunities may be limited to PAUSD students or may require a student to take a class in the district during the school year.
McDaniel said the job fair has changed over the last few years it has been held.
“It [the job fair] started as the summer camp fair so that parents in the district could learn about different camp offerings,” McDaniel said. “So, the Child Development pathway teamed up with them [the district] … and we thought this was a really great opportunity to open it up to all students to come and find out about these summer employment opportunities.”
The job fair is a great opportunity to gain experience in working with younger children, which McDaniel said is perfect for high school students.
“I think what makes us unique is that [the job fair] is really targeted toward positions where you’re working with children,” McDaniel said. “High schoolers tend to really enjoy those types of jobs and are good at those types of jobs because they’re not quite adults and they’re not kids, but they seem to have those mentoring relationships.”
McDaniel said the job fair will showcase a broad range of fields from many educational institutions and organizations.
“We have UC Berkeley coming, we have UC Santa Cruz coming, and a number of other pre-college programs that hook you up with different colleges and universities, throughout the country,” McDaniel said. “We have some out-of-state camps that high schoolers can attend. Many of the local day camps are looking for high school students to be camp counselors.”
According to McDaniel, the end goal of the job fair is to help students pursue something they love over the summer that could end up translating into their future coursework at Paly or their desired career path.
“I hope that they get to have a fun summer and do something that they love, whether it’s going to camp or working at a camp,” McDaniel said. “I also hope that maybe they’ll be interested in the child development pathway.”
Registration for the job fair will take place here. More information on the various opportunities can be found here.
